Sandy

Synopsis:

Severe weather is on the way for the commonwealth as Hurricane Sandy moves in on Monday. Even though it won't make landfall until nighttime, expect heavy rain and strong, gusty winds during the day. These conditions will be associated with Sandy, which has developed into an unusually large storm with both tropical and extratropical characteristics. Basically, it's a giant Nor'easter with an attitude, and its sights are set on Pennsylvania. After making landfall in New Jersey Monday night, Sandy is forecasted to move into central PA before making its slow turn towards New England. The worst conditions across most of the state will be Monday night through Tuesday as the storm moves through the commonwealth. Expect 20-50 mph winds with gusts to 75 mph and heavy rain, amounting to 4-8" before Sandy moves out of the region on Friday. If you are not prepared for these conditions, you only have one day left. Stay safe everybody.

Mon-Wed:

GFS and the Euro models have converged on a Cat 1 landfall over the NJ/Delaware coastline tomorrow afternoon.  Worst case scenario will be a landfall over central NJ, as this would push all the water up into NYC, as well as westward through the Long Island Sound and, again, into NYC.  This is definitely still a possibility, although a central NJ landfall is trending towards the northern area of the cone of uncertainty.  Either way, Sandy's wind field is simply diabolic.  40 mph winds extend 500 miles from the center and 75 mph winds extend 175 miles!  So, whether Sandy ultimately makes landfall in Delaware or New Jersey, all the major cities along the East Coast will still be impacted with at least tropical storm force winds, heavy rain, and historic storm surge.  These same cities could also see record low pressures.  The record lows in many of these cities are in the 960-965 mb range.  Sandy is currently forecasted to come ashore as a sub 950 mb system, which would easily smash these records.

Thurs-Fri:

Rain lingers over the commonwealth as the winds die down and Sandy's remnants scoot out of our region and into the Northeast, leaving most of the commonwealth with 4-8" of rain.